Two Melbourne IT companies are being prosecuted by the Fair Work Ombudsman for alleged sham contracting and underpaying foreign workers more than $17,000.

Pradeep Gaur, the owner of Konsulteq and Konsulteq Upskilling and Traning Services, will face court in February this year over the charges, which also include unlawful termination and a falsification of records.

The alleged breaches occurred in 2010-11 to two female Indian national employees.

Following an audit, Gaur was told that two employees were being misclassified as contractors and were being underpaid. However, Gaur allegedly failed to rectify the problem and therefore breached sham contracting laws.

One of the employees also alleged she was not paid during a training program.

Gaur also allegedly provided false documents to the Fair Work Ombudsman which showed the employees had been back-dated pay, when they had not.

One of the employees was allegedly fired when she continued to complain about her pay, which the Fair Work Ombudsman said is in breach of adverse action provisions.

Gaur and his companies faces penalties of up to $6600 for individuals and $33,000 for corporations.

The Ombudsman is seeking entitlement pay of $717 and $16,571 for both employees and additional pay for the sacked employee.

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